really quickly and then rises again what does it look like well it just looked like . breaking news on our t.v. it's now thought a terror attack in the russian city of volgograd could have been carried out by imam if he were killed by a suicide bomber targeting the city's main railway station. and the week's top headlines mass rallies in turkey to demand the government step down over a wide ranging corruption scandal are met with a tough police response. but we look at the stories that shaped twenty thirteen a year that's all cia contractor turned whistleblower edward snowden exposed america's far reaching global surveillance the old media overnight stations are simply a branch of the establishment. really leaks founder julian assange stalks to us about journalists failing to challenge governments as we discussed media stand

a road movie about activist on a mission to reveal sensitive u.s. secrets. it's midnight in moscow you're watching archie international with me and he's now a straight to our top story this hour investigators say they're looking at a number of possibilities about who carried out a suicide bomb attack in the southern russian city of volgograd some evidence now suggest a man may have been involved the first reports said it was a lone female suicide bomber it's been confirmed fifteen people were killed in the attack which targeted the city's central railway station. has details. remnants of a man's body have been found at the scene of the blast according to various reports

there is there a remnant of a hand clutching a grenade pin and there's also reports of a grenade that was just covered just just a little while ago discovered at the scene of the blast as well so now the authorities are saying there is a high possibility that in fact a man could have been involved in this blast in volgograd prior to this there was talk about a female suicide bomber we actually were even getting reports about her identity she is reportedly been wanted by authorities. march of last year when she was last seen in. southern russian republic the president of russia for the reason why they are pushing has sent his special envoy to volgograd as well to keep to keep track of the situation there is video of the blast out there on the internet of course and there are also reports from witnesses towards the end of the blast was incredibly powerful and let's have a quick listen to what the people who were actually there at the scene had to tell about this i was inside in the waiting home i heard an explosion i didn't realized

what had happened and i saw the giant engine still was completely ruined and people were coming out with. i was with a child not far from where the blast happened i saw a blast shot it last line i pushed the child to the floor and covered him with my body. we were drinking coffee there was an explosion i was lucky to be wearing my hood save me from all the shattered glass we heard screams my coat is covered in blood now the first three days of the new year have been declared to be days of mourning for volgograd it's important to remember that this is a city which has just had a similar terror attack happening there just two months ago next a female suicide bomber has blow herself up on their boss. well there's been a lot of reaction to the events in volgograd on social media on twitter

eyewitnesses have been posting their reports from the scene here some of them let's take a look at what was on twitter from the scene a local photographer tweeted that the blast was so strong it blew the doors off the station a volunteer from the site talked about how people were at the station helping those injured and then a local official talked about how the governor mayor heads of security agencies were all at the scene we spoke to senior lecturer at moscow state university marks the bota he explained why he believes the city came under attack although good is the principal focus simply because it's an easy and close target to the south of the caucasus. just yesterday there the russian security services reported that a principal aide to the self-styled leader of the caucasus doku umarov was killed in dog astonied by security forces i think we can look at this attack today as for

more than likely a very rapid reaction presidential attack or the chilling with this local farms. live now in the paula last marne investigative journalism lecturer at bruno university in the u.k. it's still unclear who exactly was behind this bomb what do you think were the attackers or the attackers motive well based on previous examples as you pointed out both a guide was suffered in the time so but it looks like it's linked to the north the north caucasus terrorism campaign it's been raging for many years now but the sense is that it may be part of the build up towards the cheerleading lympics which starts in just over a month's time. tension militant leader doku umarov had pledged terror ahead of the sochi olympics could this be part of a strategy to disrupt the games that he left behind. i think that's seems to be

fairly likely obviously we don't know yet because you know there's even confusion over who actually set the bomb up whether it was a male or female or possibly it could be both until one knows who was actually blown up and what their allegiances were be very hard to work out but on policy form and given the situation in october where the the bomber was traced back to dagestan if i remember correctly it would seem likely that's what was the cause of this security is on such high alert across russia especially ahead of the olympic games so close how can such attacks be prevented well of course the security the best purity in the world can't keep out a determined enemy although it's interesting that they keep choosing volgograd which is in the regional focus but is a fair distance from sochi presume of this point to sochi has such heavy security is it's not really a viable child get and it is interest in the initial reports suggest that the

actual bombs will have to be set off just before the metal detectors that are in stations now across russia so you know this is going to be as with all these kind of situations a mouse going for some time you know if the u.n. a european and american officials have condemned these attacks what can be done on an international level to combat such terror. well that's very difficult it is you know it is seems to be a russian domestic issue in many ways and. the groups. they get their support him places like now syria where it's very difficult for the international community to have any influence and not having much influence in syria let alone any of or else earlier this year it was leaked that there was an offer from the saudis to putin to help try to reign in terror in the caucuses ahead of the

olympics it wasn't taken any kind of connection here we're just speculating of course yeah i think but i think this is getting complicated i you know so seldom is involved in many aspects of the course they've just they've just been looking at supporting the lebanese army so it's a very very complex situation and i think speculating wildly is not the best thing to do at this time there are enough paul lashmar and vests to get of journalists and lecturer at bruno university in the u.k. thanks for that analysis. we will be closely following developments and we'll bring you all the latest details as and when we get them you can log on to our to dot com from minute by minute timeline of the events developing in volgograd. now to the week's top stories thousands gathered in turkey's capital ankara to demand the resignation of the country's government that's after a violent dispersal of protesters in istanbul on friday night where police used

tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds the rallies were sparked by a corruption probe that's led to a major cabinet reshuffle and the arrests of government officials are sisera firth is following events. it's not uncommon sight so they stumble streets in a year that's been marked by widespread protests but this time the rallies taking place in the wake of a corruption crackdown that's what the government the threats to prime minister comes not just from the streets but from within using hasi the turnout for the demonstration was significantly smaller than the seen the some of the last of the clashes break out between police and protesters as a guy who's been in power for such a long time has maintained control a lot of people said that a lot of good things stirred the country right now the. government actually it has become very very. protests from. this.

regime that is not of this is. big enough to stop this between publicly after the protests the prime minister remains defiant and continued to blame the corruption probe well of foreign conspiracy and a second wave of detentions may still be possible for the time being if that look for means with at least a prosecutor publicly accused to law enforcement being in the government's pocket refusing a court decision to carry out will wait for government officials and their families as that political drama continues to unfold obviously the biggest test now facing the embattled five minutes the two lies ahead of him match. test for mr. extrude crush. bad.

as. bad as the future. may be very difficult. at. i think that when days like the elections take place the full impact of the corruption scandal created the boat served up to the starboard. corners ahead for you right after this break including a look back at the stories that shaped twenty thirty. six good laboratory to mccurdy was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything turns mission to teach me the creation and why it should care about humans and worry that this is why you should care only on the dot com.

please speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic in school here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the ip interviews intriguing story for you. then try. to find out more visit our big dog called. twenty thirteen winds down we're looking back at the biggest stories of the year.

held as a hero and condemned as a traitor cia whistleblower edward snowden revealed to the world just how much the u.s. is spying harvesting information and storing huge amounts of photo and internet data with every new leak and it's a surveillance appears more and more far reaching are just going to count looks at how the revelations are changing the world and the cost to whistleblowers edward snowden says george orwell's fictitious big brother is no match for the u.s. national security agency the types of collection the book microphones and video cameras t.v.'s that watches are nothing compared to what we have today snowden revealed that a secret court rubber stamps warrants for telecommunication companies to hand out the data of millions of their customers he also leaked the programs that the government uses to track virtually anything anybody does on the internet and also

store that information. and he showed how the u.s. government had light about mass surveillance does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir while most americans think to edward snowden the u.s. government tectum as a spy and a traitor the united states government classified its evidence of its own criminal misconduct its its violations of the bill of rights what we're doing is said to catering to tele tarion procedures which is gathering information about all the individuals in the world. the former intelligence contractor is now in exile knowing for certain that he'd go to jail should he return to the us like bradley and now chelsea manning who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this august

so we could leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables and video proof of us involved thinking and want to find. another man who found himself in jail this year was john king the first u.s. official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate carol suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to have served his two and a half years sentence i have never believed that my case was about a leak i have always believed that my case is about torture in the hunt for whistleblowers journalists have been targeted as well u.s. authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journalists the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about in the states surveillance was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden to british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terry's. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist when he was

a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship details and advocating the online please. as much a question as possible on the government on january eleventh the twenty six year old committed suicide. prosecutors wanted to put him in jail for up to thirty five years for downloading academic articles from a subscription based research website at his university with the intent to make them available to the public this was somebody who was pushed to the edge by what i think of as a kind of bullying by our government a government who treated him as if he were nine eleven terrorists edward snowden's revelations showed with the kind of surveillance that governments are doing by missy's out the window but this year will also learn what happens to those who embrace this new age of openness and accessibility of information it showed that while governments in the u.s. government first and foremost won their populations to be open and transparent they

themselves become increasingly secretive in washington i'm going to shut down our team. let's take a closer look at what snowden exposed about n.s.a. surveillance it's collecting millions of phone records in america every day and it also has access to internet giants like google facebook microsoft that's harvesting online data around the globe on top of that the security agency's targets european citizens and even taps e.u. leaders but at the same time germany and the u.k. along with australia and canada are actually closely collaborating with american intelligence latin american governments and companies are a major target for u.s. spies plus the n.s.a. is collecting data from fiber optic cables that carry most of the world's internet and phone traffic former cia officer ray mcgovern believes those violating privacy should face justice not the leakers. i am delighted to hear that ed snowden on his desk in honolulu had

a copy of the constitution of the united states all dog eared because he used it to argue with his his compatriots there it is say as to whether what they were doing was legal whether it was constitutional whether it was a crime for them to be corrupt to be cooperated in using their technical expertise to violate america's privacy right and left the question should be why those who are aided and abetted this whether they should be in the spose impeached in their case and brought to trial for these of gross violations of their solemn oath to you to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies or media stan is a road movie which follows weekly exact of us on a mission to reveal sensitive u.s. secrets we're showing it throughout the day here in r.t. international i discussed it with a special panel of guests including julian assange is the creator of the film and

one of the journalists filmed trying to give up secrets. what makes this documentary so interesting is that we have different media organizations in different countries but all starting out of the same place. journalists come to them offer them the same type of material the us government diplomatic cables and then we see what the response is publish not publish censor some things document what they're thinking as they're doing in most cases. there are very significant significant strains in fact most cases result in publication by the organizations concerned that all of those materials. do you feel like the mission you've documented in media stan was a success there were a lot of reactions i remember in tajikistan was people saying you're not going to make a difference nothing will really change if we speak about making

a difference or if the mission in itself was a success. obviously in the regards to actually getting the material published in the various medias it's difficult and called a great success because they were actually quite well not that many newspapers neither in central asia or for that matter here in the united states that you're particularly interested in publishing the full material that they got access to so in that respect no it wasn't a success but from a broader respect of course we can see that the leaks releases have have. made a large impact they can. change the way that we interact with with media. since then. i think if we just look at the. whole affair which is has been going on for the last how for a year or so that is a consequence of that we can fix releases and that is the fact that.

there is no there is no direct. censorship which is feasible by a particularly musicians with replication that happened in different countries in different places where it is possible for them to become. in afghanistan obviously the risks are a whole different kind of risk there are you going to continue your work to try to keep revealing the truth. i think this is our responsibility as journalists to reveal what's happening behind the scenes within the government and the regional level as well as international level so i've been working as a journalist since two thousand and six in afghanistan. the risks to be generous in afghanistan is so high it sends to you since the since early two thousand and thirteen there have been sixty cases against. journalists violation of violence and many other cases against journalists in afghanistan so that there

is a high risk to be a journalist in afghanistan but this is our responsibility not to give up and continue our work as a journalist edward snowden should use the media and not wiki leaks to channel his revelations don't you think that's a good sign that he was able to do it through the media. well i think it's quite sad actually it would snowden didn't go to infect the media he went to someone that's closely associated with us and specific journalist glenn greenwald and another specific journalist laura portress. most of them prominently a couple journalists to wiki leaks has gone clean green worlds for his part was then working with the guardian has left the guardian. as a result. of the censorship by the guardian all of that material to date less than two point five percent of the snowden documents have been published but

the majority of the media are still reluctant to challenge the government like you said and speaking of glenn greenwald recently he reprimanded journalists across the globe for not standing up to the government lets out so have a listen to what going greenwald had to say at a recent conference in hamburg. what is that we were targeting in the behavior of the media over the past six months is just revelations have emerged almost entirely without and despite the role of the us media and their british counterparts is to be voices for those with the greatest power and to protect their interests and serve them but your highness i want to ask you is it as bad as greenwald is saying generally speaking if you just understand that the powerful media institutions are part of part of power rather than being being so to speak mediators of information if you just understand the very idea then obviously you will start.

media consumption of news or information in a different in a different respect so yes of course there is that bad. and if we look at an institution such as the washington post which was one of the first institutions that had access to snowden's documents they decided not to publish anything i mean practically didn't publish anything and what we can understand from that is that there is a direct relationship between between the different power institutions in our societies and media is most definitely one of the most important power institutions that we have in our society three. recap now of our breaking news it has been confirmed that fifteen people died in a bomb blast in russia southern city of volgograd. i bent down to collect my documents when i saw a flash of light and there was a blast i was thrown back by the explosion when it came to my senses

a man was carrying only outside was i able to get a breath of air and started to understand what was happening. dozens were injured by the blast at the city's central railway station the explosion was extremely powerful causing the doors and windows of the station to be blown out completely some evidence now suggest it was a man who carried out the blast initial reports had said it was a lone female suicide bomber we'll bring you the latest updates on the story in a little over thirty minutes taking you then it's our tease business show venture capital with host katie holmes. the media leave us so we leave to be. the same motions to the other party

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well convention cafeteria have you had an amazing christmas and you're enjoying the rest of your holidays in today so we're going to be taking on some of the fun out too when it is on the loses of twenty teams will be speaking to saxo bank chief economist stephen jacobson the next is outrageous. new publication always talks to babies. it's been another year of modest success to solve and economic woes but the general theme for the majority of the world's major economies has been the stuhlinger of growth it seems that the recovery road from the financial crises is a long winding run the european debt crisis has managed to avoid collapse but yet there's no resolution that was the u.s. shutdown life of money squabbles the ukraine trade tug of war and russia fell to

achieve its big growth so we're going to check in with our correspondents in washington but in kiev and central mosque mall twenty thirteen another says he has check in with perry and boring who's in washington for a stay pan tell us twenty thirty who will take. recording is definitely the financial winner in the united states started the year at about thirteen dollars and peaked at twelve hundred additionally congress held hearings on virtual currencies last month were federal regulatory officials recognized the benefits of big coin closing the year on a very positive note anyone invested in the virtual currency did very well in twenty thirteen the biggest loser their share is the middle class this year alone at their quantitative easing the federal reserve spent about a trillion dollars in bond purchases which is devaluing the u.s. dollar and of course it's also hundreds the country's reputation on the world stage and helped lead to the talks of a possible debt default during the.